'Saturday Night Live' jokes about Alec Baldwin's arrest after his Trump is a no-show

Alec Baldwin made an appearance on ‘Saturday Night Live,’ but not as President Donald Trump. The actor was the butt of a joke in the show’s opening sketch after he was arrested on Friday.
USA TODAY

This week's "Saturday Night Live" was the rare episode that didn't feature Alec Baldwin as President Donald Trump in its opening sketch – perhaps because the actor was arrested Friday after he allegedly punched a man on the streets of New York in a dispute over a parking spot.

Instead, Kate McKinnon led the cold open with her impression of Fox News host Laura Ingraham, her segment mostly focusing on Fox News' coverage of the migrant caravan while sneaking in one reference to Baldwin's absence toward the end.

“When we come back, an update from disgraced former actor Alec Baldwin – seen here molesting a young Boy Scout,” she announced, with her screen showing a picture of Baldwin’s Scoutmaster and Adam Sandler’s Canteen Boy "SNL" characters from the classic sketch.

Following the altercation Friday, Baldwin was arrested and charged with assault, police told USA TODAY.

Baldwin called the situation "egregiously misstated" in a response posted on a Twitter account for the Hilaria and Alec Baldwin Foundation, writing, "The assertion that I punched anyone over a parking spot is false."

"I wanted to go on the record stating as much," he wrote, saying the "negative charges" were "clickbait entertainment."

"Fortunately, no matter how reverberating the echos, it doesn’t make the statements true," Baldwin added.

Baldwin has been charged with misdemeanor assault and harassment, said spokeswoman Det. Sophia Mason, and was released later Friday from the NYPD's 10th Precinct. He will go before a judge on the charges at a later date.